1389. Bulgaria and Servia conquered by the Turks under Amurath I at the
decisive battle of Kosovo; he is slain.
Death of Pope Urban VI; Boniface succeeds; the schism continues.
Albert, King of Sweden, defeated and made prisoner by Queen Margaret,
who reigns over the three Scandinavian kingdoms.
1390. War of Florence with Milan.
Robert III ascends the throne of Scotland.
1392. Fits of insanity seize the young King of France, Charles VI; cards
are invented, or introduced, to amuse him during his lucid intervals.
1394. Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the "Navigator."
1395. Milan is created a hereditary duchy by Emperor Wenceslaus for
Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti.
1396. Battle of Nicopolis; the Christian defenders of Hungary suffer a
great defeat at the hands of the Turkish sultan Bajazet I.
1397. Scandinavia united under one crown. See "UNION OF DENMARK, SWEDEN,
AND NORWAY," vii, 243.
1398. Mortimer, Earl of March, presumptive heir to the English throne
and governor of Ireland, slain by a rebel force in that island.
Froissart writes his _Chronicles_.
1399. Deposition of Richard II of England; Henry Bolingbroke founds the
house of Lancaster. See "DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II," vii, 251.
After a long struggle for the possession of Naples between Ladislaus and
Louis II of Anjou, it ends in the triumph of Ladislaus.
1400. A great revolt of the Welsh is headed by Owen Glendower.
Emperor Wenceslaus is deposed.
Rupert of the Palatinate elected to the throne of Germany.
1401. Parliament ordains the burning of Lollards in England. Barcelona
bank (earliest existing bank) established.
1402. Battle of Homildon Hill; victory of the Percys, a noble northern
English family, over the Scots.
License by royal letters-patent given to the "_Confrerie de la Passion_"
to exhibit sacred dramas, or _Mysteries_, in France.
"DISCOVERY OF THE CANARY ISLANDS AND THE AFRICAN COAST." See vii, 266.
Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar) defeats and captures Bajazet at Angora.
1403. Battle of Shrewsbury; Henry IV defeats the Percys, who had allied
themselves with Glendower to place the Earl of March on the English
throne; Harry Percy (Hotspur) slain.
1404. Queen Margaret of Sweden claims Schleswig and Holstein on the
death of Gerard VI.
1405. Pisa sold to Florence by the Visconti.
An English act of parliament prohibits anyone not possessing twenty
shillings a year in land from apprenticing his sons to any trade.
Venice conquers Verona and Padua.
Prince James Stuart, afterward James I, heir to the crown of Scotland,
captured by the English.
1406. Pisa compelled to submit to Florence after a year of war.
Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, proposes a general
council to terminate the schism in the Church.[93]
1407. France distracted by the animosities of her leading families;
Louis, Duke of Orleans, is assassinated by John the Fearless, Duke of
Burgundy.
1408. Valentina, widow of the Duke of Orleans, demands justice on her
husband's assassins; the Duke of Burgundy declared an enemy of the
state; he occupies Paris and drives out the royal court.
1409. Council of Pisa; both popes refuse to appear; they are deposed and
Alexander V is elected.
University of Leipsic founded.
1410. Death of Rupert of the Palatinate, Emperor of Germany.
Jagellon (Ladislaus II), King of Poland, vanquishes the Teutonic
Knights.
1411. Battle of Harlow; defeat of the Scotch Lord of the Isles and the
highland clans.
Sigismund elected emperor of Germany.
John Huss excommunicated and forbidden to preach.
University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, founded.
1412. For insulting the chief justice of England the Prince of Wales is
committed to prison.
Birth of Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans.
1413. Death of Henry IV; Henry V ascends the English throne; he discards
his dissolute associates and reforms his conduct.
Ladislaus takes forcible possession of Rome and most of the papal
states.
1414. The Seventeenth general council. See "COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE," vii,
284.
Joanna II succeeds her brother Ladislaus of Naples on his death.
1415. "TRIAL AND BURNING OF JOHN HUSS." See vii, 294.
John the Great of Portugal conquers Ceuta; he discards the use of the
Julian period and introduces the computation of time from the Christian
era.
Brandenburg is acquired by the house of Hohenzollern. See "THE HOUSE OF
HOHENZOLLERN ESTABLISHED IN BRANDENBURG," vii, 305.
"BATTLE OF AGINCOURT." See vii, 320.
1416. Jerome of Prague burned.
Alfonso the Wise, so called for his patronage of letters, ascends the
throne of Aragon on the death of his father, Ferdinand the Just.
1417. Pope Martin V elected by the Council of Constance; end of the
schism.
Sir John Oldcastle, the "Good Lord Cobham," after four years' hiding is
captured and burned as a heretic in London.
Gypsies appear in Transylvania; they are believed to have been low-caste
Hindus expelled by Timur in the fourteenth century.
1418. Close of the Council of Constance. See "COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE,"
vii, 284.
A great massacre in Paris of the Armagnacs by the populace, the
partisans of John the Fearless of Burgundy; the Dauphin and his
adherents transfer their seat of government to Poitiers.
1419. Surrender of Rouen to the English.
John the Fearless, beguiled by a treaty, meets the Dauphin, who has him
assassinated.
Storming of the town-hall of Prague by the Hussites; outbreak of the
Hussite wars.
Madeira first reached by the Portuguese, who sail under the command of
Henry the Navigator.
1420. Henry V, King of England, made successor to the French throne. See
"BATTLE OF AGINCOURT," vii, 320.
Sigismund besieges the Hussites in Prague; he is defeated by them, led
by John Ziska.
Joanna II of Naples, who summons to her aid Alfonso V of Aragon, is
attacked by Louis III of Anjou.
1421. Second crusade against the Bohemian Hussites.
1422. Death of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France; the former
is succeeded by his infant son; he is proclaimed King of England and
France; his uncles, the Duke of Gloucester, regent in England, and the
Duke of Bedford in France; Charles VII, son of Charles VI, is proclaimed
by the French.
Constantinople besieged by Amurath II, Sultan of Turkey.
1423. Frederick the Warlike, Margrave of Misnia, assumes the electorate
of Saxony and establishes the house of Wettin.
1424. James I of Scotland, released after a captivity of nineteen years,
marries a daughter of the Earl of Somerset; he assumes the government of
Scotland.
John Ziska is succeeded by Procopius the Great as head of the Taborites,
a division of the Hussites.
1425. Accession of John Palæologus II as emperor of Byzantium.
John and Hulbert van Eyck, masters of the early Flemish school, invent
painting in oil.
1426. Lübeck and the Baltic Hanse Towns support the Duke of Holstein
against Eric XIII of Sweden.
Great Hussite victory at Aussig.
1427. The Hussites extend their conquests in Saxony and Meissen; they
gain a victory at Mies.
1428. Orleans, France, besieged by the English.
Death of John de' Medici, founder of the illustrious family at Florence.
1429. Coronation of Charles VII of France at Rheims.
Jeanne d'Arc relieves Orleans. See "JEANNE D'ARC'S VICTORY AT ORLEANS,"
vii, 333.
Refusal of the Hussites to treat for peace with Emperor Sigismund.
Antipope Clement VIII abdicates and ends the Great Schism.
1430. Institution of the Golden Fleece by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, on
his marriage with Isabella, daughter of King John of Portugal, and in
commemoration of the manufacturing prosperity of the Netherlands.
1431. Jeanne d'Arc dishonorably and inhumanly burned at Rouen. See
"TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JEANNE D'ARC," vii, 350.
Council of Basel. Pope Martin V succeeded by Eugenius IV.
1432. Prince Henry's navigators discover and take possession of the
Azores for the Portuguese.
Opening of the trade of the north to the English and Dutch by the wars
of the Hanse Towns, and Holstein, with Denmark.
1433. Treaty of the Council of Basel with the section of the Hussites
called Calixtines; this satisfies them and they secede from the Hussite
league.
1434. Cosmo de' Medici recalled to Florence; his party triumphant.
Organization of the national church (Utraquist) in Bohemia.
First exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese.
The Calixtines join the imperial army and defeat the Taborites at
Bohmisch-Brod.
1435. Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy; the latter withdraws
from the English party.
Death of the Duke of Bedford.
1436. A settlement effected between Emperor Sigismund and the Hussites
by the treaty of Iglau; he is recognized as king of Bohemia.
Charles VII, the French King, recovers Paris from the English.
Eric, by a treaty of peace, relinquishes the greater part of Schleswig
to the Duke of Holstein and makes concessions at Stockholm which restore
tranquillity in Sweden.
1437. Death of Emperor Sigismund; election of Albert of Austria to the
throne of Hungary.
Murder of James I; his son, James II, succeeds him on the throne of
Scotland.
Pope Eugenius IV is summoned to appear before the Council of Basel to
answer various charges brought against him; he issues a bull dissolving
the council; he calls another at Ferrara, whither he invites the Greek
Emperor to attend and arrange for the union of the two churches.
1438. Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII; it secures the liberty of the
Gallican Church. See "CHARLES VII ISSUES HIS PRAGMATIC SANCTION," vii,
370.
Coronation of Albert II, King of Hungary; recognized by the Diet of
Frankfort.
[1] See _Dante Composes the Divina Commedia_, page 1.
[2] See _Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars_,
page 51.
[3] See _The Third Estate Joins in the Government of
France_, page 17.
[4] See _War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair_, page
23.
[5] See _First Swiss Struggle for Liberty_, page 28.
[6] See _The Swiss Win Their Independence_, page 238.
[7] See _Battle of Bannockburn_, page 41.
[8] See _Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance_, page
110.
[9] See _Crowning of Petrarch at Rome_, page 93.
[10] See _Rienzi's Revolution in Rome_, page 104.
[11] See _Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at
Venice_, page 154.
[12] See _Genoese Surrender to Venetians_, page 213.
[13] See _Rise of the Hanseatic League_, vol. vi, page
214.
[14] See _Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway_, page
243.
[15] See _Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden
Bull_, page 160.
[16] See _The Black Death Ravages Europe_, page 130.
[17] See _Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages_, page 187.
[18] See _James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt_,
page 68.
[19] See _Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King
of France_, page 68.
[20] See _Battles of Sluys and Crécy_, page 78.
[21] See _Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France_, page
164.
[22] See _Rebellion of Wat Tyler_, page 217.
[23] See _Turks Seize Gallipoli_, page 147.
[24] See _Conquests of Timur the Tartar_, page 169.
[25] See _Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English_,
page 227.
[26] See _Election of Antipope Clement VII_, page 201.
[27] See _Trial and Burning of John Huss_, page 294.
[28] See _Council of Constance_, page 284.
[29] See _The Hussite Wars_, page 294.
[30] See _The House of Hohenzollern Established in
Brandenburg_, page 305.
[31] See _Deposition of Richard II_, page 251.
[32] See _Battle of Agincourt_, page 320.
[33] See _English Conquest of France_, page 320.
[34] See _Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans_, page 333.
[35] See _Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc_, page 350.
[36] See _Charles VII Issues his Pragmatic Sanction_,
page 370.
[37] See _Discovery of the Canary Islands: Beginning of
Negro Slave Trade_, page 266.
[38] "I am not going to lose the men for the old women."
[39] "The coward who the great refusal made."
[40] "The beams on the low shores now lost and dead."
[41] "A death-like shade--Like that beneath black boughs
and foliage green O'er the cold stream in Alpine
glens display'd."
[42] "O'er all the sandy desert falling slow, Were
shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow On Alpine
summits, when the wind is low."
[43] "So will a greater fame redound to thee, To have
formed a party by thyself alone."
[44] Translated by Charles Leonard-Stuart.
[45] This Emperor was Albert I, son of Rudolph I.
[46] James van Artevelde was called "the Brewer of
Ghent," because, although born an aristocrat, he was
enrolled in the Guild of Brewers.
[47] Translated from the French by Thomas Johnes.
[48] Lord Berners' account of the advance of the Genoese
is somewhat different from this; he describes them
as _leaping_ forward with a _fell_ cry. The whole
passage is so spirited and graphic that we give it
entire:
"Whan the genowayes were assembled toguyder and
beganne to aproche, they made a great leape and crye
to abasshe thenglysshmen, but they stode styll and
styredde nat for all that. Than the genowayes agayne
the seconde tyme made another leape and a fell crye
and stepped forwarde a lytell, and thenglysshmen
remeued nat one fote; thirdly agayne they leapt and
cryed, and went forthe tyll they came within shotte;
than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes. Than
thenglysshe archers stept forthe one pase and lette
fly their arowes so hotly and so thycke that it
semed snowe. Whan the genowayes felte the arowes
persynge through heedes, armes, and brestes, many of
them cast downe their crosbowes and did cutte their
strynges and retourned dysconfited. Whan the frenche
kynge sawe them flye away, he said, Slee these
rascals, for they shall lette and trouble us without
reason; than you shoulde haue sene the men of armes
dasshe in among them and kylled a great nombre of
them; and euerstyll the englysshmen shot where as
they sawe thyckest preace, the sharpe arowes ranne
into the men of armes and into their horses, and
many fell horse and men amonge the genowayes, and
whan they were downe they coude nat relyne agayne;
the preace was so thycke that one ouerthrewe a
nother. And also amonge the englysshemen there were
certayne rascalles that went a fote with great
knyues, and they went in among the men of armes and
slewe and murdredde many as they lay on the grounde,
both erles, barownes, knyghts, and squyers, whereof
the kyng of Englande was after dyspleased, for he
had rather they had been taken prisoners."
[49] His blindness was supposed to be caused by poison,
which was given to him when engaged in the wars of
Italy.
[50] The following is Lord Berners' version of this
narration: "In the mornyng the day of the batayle
certayne frenchemen and almaygnes perforce opyned
the archers of the princes batayle, and came and
fought with the men at armes hande to hande. Than
the second batayle of thenglyshe men came to socour
the prince's batayle, the whiche was tyme, for they
had as than moche ado, and they with the prince sent
a messangar to the kynge who was on a lytell
wyndmill hill. Than the knyght sayd to the kyng, Sir
therle of Warwyke and therle of Cafort [Stafford]
Sir Reynolde Cobham and other such as be about the
prince your sonne are feersly fought with all, and
are sore handled, wherefore they desire you that you
and your batayle woll come and ayde them, for if the
frenchemen encrease as they dout they woll your
sonne and they shall have moche a do. Than the kynge
sayde, is my sonne deed or hurt or on the yerthe
felled? No, sir, quoth the knight, but he is hardely
matched wherfore he hath nede of your ayde. Well
sayde the kyng, retourne to hym and to them that
sent you hyther, and say to them that they sende no
more to me for any adventure that falleth as long as
my sonne is alyve; and also say to them that they
suffer hym this day to wynne his spurres, for if God
be pleased, I woll this iourney be his and the
honoure therof and to them that be aboute hym. Than
the knyght retourned agayn to them and shewed the
kynges wordes, the which greatly encouraged them,
and repoyned in that they had sende to the kynge as
they dyd."
[51] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.
[52] Thucydides, in his account of the earlier plague in
Athens, B.C. 430, says, "It was supposed that the
Peloponnesians had poisoned the cisterns."
[53] Translated from the French by Charles
Leonard-Stuart.
[54] Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been
corrupted into Othman. The descendants of his
subjects style themselves Osmanlis--corrupted into
Ottoman.
[55] Edebali, a Mussulman prophet and saint, whose
daughter Osman married.
[56] A criminal tribunal, of which Steno himself was
president.
[57] "Jacques Bonhomme." Froissart takes this for the
name of an individual, but it is the common
nickname--like "Hodge" or "Giles"--of the French
peasantry. It is said that the term was applied by
the lords of the manor to their villeins or serfs,
in derision of their awkwardness and patient
endurance of their lot. The "King who came from
Clermont"--the leader of the Jacquerie--was William
Karl or Callet.
[58] A most wonderful scene. The B'hagiratha or Ganges
issues from under a very low arch at the foot of the
grand snow-bed. The illiterate mountaineers compare
the pendent icicles to Mahodeva's hair. Hindoos of
research may formerly have been here; and if so, one
cannot think of any place to which they might more
aptly give the name of a cow's mouth than to this
extraordinary _débouché_.
[59] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.
[60] "Chorus Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus' dance; the
lascivious dance, Paracelsus calls it, because they
that are taken with it can do nothing but dance till
they be dead or cured. It is so called for that the
parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for
help; and, after they had danced there awhile, they
were certainly freed. 'Tis strange to hear how long
they will dance, and in what manner, over stools,
forms, and tables. One in red clothes they cannot
abide. Musick above all things they love; and
therefore magistrates in Germany will hire musicians
to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions
to dance with them. This disease hath been very
common in Germany, as appears by those relations of
Schenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of madness,
who brags how many several persons he hath cured of
it. Felix Platerus (_de Mentis Alienat._ cap. 3)
reports of a woman in Basel whom he saw, that danced
a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind
of palsie. Bodine, in his fifth book, speaks of this
infirmity; Monavius, in his last epistle to
Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you
may read more of it."--_Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy._
[61] The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria states that,
at the festival of St. John, large fires were
annually kindled in several towns, through which
men, women, and children jumped; and that young
children were carried through by their mothers. He
considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic
ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded
of Ahaz, in II Kings, xvi. 3. Zonaras, Balsamon, and
Photius speak of the St. John's fires in
Constantinople, and the first looks upon them as the
remains of an old Grecian custom. Even in modern
times fires are still lighted on St. John's Day in
Brittany and other remote parts of Continental
Europe, through the smoke of which the cattle are
driven in the belief that they will thus be
protected from contagious and other diseases, and in
these practices protective fumigation originated.
That such different nations should have had the same
idea of fixing the purification by fire on St.
John's Day is a remarkable coincidence, which
perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to
baptism.
[62] Beckmann makes many other observations on this
well-known circumstance. The priest named is the
same who is still known in the nursery tales of
children as the _Knecht Ruprecht_.
[63] _Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme_ ("May you be
seized with St. Vitus' dance").
[64] "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his,
but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by
means of wax figures (_peri cunculas_). The witches
made a wax image of the person who was to be
bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck
it full of pins, or melted it before the fire. The
books on magic, of the Middle Ages, are full of such
things; though the reader who may wish to obtain
information on this subject need not go so far back.
Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated
Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise
on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth
century."--_Treatise on the Diseases of Children._
[65] Some authorities give twenty-nine.
[66] Selden, in his _Table Talk_, says: "There was once,
I am sure, a parliamentary pope. Pope Urban was made
pope in England by act of parliament, against Pope
Clement: the act is not in the _Book of Statutes_,
either because he that compiled the book would not
have the name of the Pope there, or else he would
not let it appear that they meddled with any such
thing; but it is upon the rolls."
[67] A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents.
[68] In Walsingham may be seen a long account of the
death of the Archbishop, page 250. His head was
carried in triumph through the streets on the point
of a lance, and fixed on London bridge. That it
might be the better known, the hat or bonnet worn by
him was nailed to the skull.
[69] When Tresilian, one of the judges, tried the
insurgents at St. Alban's, he impanelled three
juries of twelve men each. The first was ordered to
present all whom they knew to be the chiefs of the
tumult, the second gave their opinion on the
presentation of the first, and the third pronounced
the verdict of guilty or not guilty. It does not
appear that witnesses were examined. The juries
spoke from their personal knowledge. Thus each
convict was condemned on the oaths of thirty-six
men. At first, on account of the multitude of
executions, the condemned were beheaded: afterward
they were hanged and left on the gibbet as objects
of terror; but as their bodies were removed by their
friends, the King ordered them to be hanged in
chains, the first instance in which express mention
of the practice is made. According to Holinshed the
executions amounted to fifteen hundred.
[70] The readers, as might be expected, often
surreptitiously copied portions of special interest.
One is reminded of the story in ancient Irish
history of a curious decision arising out of an
incident of this kind nearly a thousand years
before, which seems to have influenced the history
of Christianity in Britain. St. Columb, on a visit
to the aged St. Finian in Ulster, had permission to
read in the Psalter belonging to his host. But every
night while the good old saint was sleeping, the
young one was busy in the chapel writing by a
miraculous light till he had completed a copy of the
whole Psalter. The owner of the Psalter, discovering
this, demanded that it should be given up, as it had
been copied unlawfully from his book; while the
copyist insisted that, the materials of labor being
his, he was entitled to what he had written. The
dispute was referred to Diarmad, the King at Tara,
and his decision (genuinely Irish) was given in St.
Finian's favor. "To every book," said he, "belongs
its son-book [copy], as to every cow belongs her
calf." Columb complained of the decision as unjust,
and the dispute is said to have been one of the
causes of his leaving Ireland for Iona.
[71] Oliver Wendell Holmes: _Autocrat of the
Breakfast-table._
[72] A town in Schwyz. The name means a "hermitage." St.
Meinrad, according to legend, lived there (ninth
century) as a hermit. It is a celebrated pilgrim
resort.--ED.
[73] He descended from Henry III both by father and
mother. But he could not claim by the father's side,
because the young Earl of March was sprung from the
Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John of
Gaunt; nor by the mother's side, because she was
sprung from Edmund of Lancaster, a younger brother
of Edward I. It was pretended that Edmund was the
elder brother, but deformed in body, and therefore
set aside with his own consent. If we may believe
Hardyng, Henry on September 21st produced in council
a document to prove the seniority of Edmund over
Edward, but that the contrary was shown by a number
of unanswerable authorities.